AFL Seals Deal for Nadi Terminal

New Zealand construction company, Hawkins Infrastructure, has joined hands with local company Pacific Building Solutions to undertake the Nadi International Airport Terminal Modernisation Project.
Financed by Westpac Banking Corporation, the deal between Airports Fiji Limited and the companies was inked last night.

Following the signing, AFL board chair Faiz Khan also announced that Government has allowed all materials imported for the purpose of this project to be duty free.

This would mean a saving of up to $3 million by AFL with the project alone.
The terminal modernisation is expected to be completed in 16 months time.
Hawkins Group has nearly $1billion turnover out of New Zealand. It’s a reputable company and had recently built the Christchurch Airport development.

Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum reminded the construction team to ensure there is minimum disruption to passengers during the upgrading period.

“Today’s signing, as alluded to by the chair, is indicative of the type of robustness that has come about over the past year or so, with Faiz (Khan, AFL chairman)being the chairperson of AFL,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.
“The time and energy he has put in to this particular project, and indeed with AFL, it has claimed a lot of dividends.
“AFL is now doing very well comparatively to what it was doing a few years ago. The fact that Westpac has partnered with AFL is indicative of the confidence they have with the company.
“Unfortunately in Fiji previously, a lot of state owned enterprises were very much depended on grants. They were seen essentially as entities which barely made profit, if at all

“We want state owned enterprises to be run like private companies and indeed this is what AFL is achieving.” Mr Khan said it had been a tough six months for them to finalise tender process.

“We are excited about the challendes ahead of us. We know that our work has just begun, ” Mr Khan said.